As of 2010, Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) is a $22 billion, multinational company founded in 1906 and operating in 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, and employs 130,000 people. How does a company of such size and magnitude effectively manage and motivate employees from diverse backgrounds and experiences? Such companies depend on the productivity and performance of their employees. In their journey over the last 100 years, they’ve withstood many successes and failures. In 2000, Xerox was facing bankruptcy after years of mismanagement, piles of debt, and mounting questions about its accounting practices. Anne Mulcahy turned Xerox around. Mulcahy joined Xerox as an employee in 1976 and moved up the corporate ladder, holding several management positions until she became CEO in 2001. 104 Figure 6.4 Anne Mulcahy, Former Xerox Chairman of the Board (left), and Ursula Burns, Xerox CEO (right). Fortune Live Media – Fortune Most Powerful Women 2012 – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0; Fortune Live Media – Fortune Most Powerful Women 2013 – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. In 2005, Mulcahy was named by Fortune magazine as the second most powerful woman in business. Based on a lifetime of experience with Xerox, she knew that the company had powerful employees who were not motivated when she took over. Mulcahy believed that among other key business changes, motivating employees at Xerox was a key way to pull the company back from the brink of failure. One of her guiding principles was a belief that in order to achieve customer satisfaction, employees must be interested and motivated in their work. Mulcahy not only successfully saw the company through this difficult time but also was able to create a stronger and more focused company. In 2009, Mulcahy became the chairman of Xerox’s board of directors and passed the torch to Ursula Burns, who became the new CEO of Xerox. Burns became not only the first African American woman CEO to head a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) company but also the first woman to succeed another woman as the head of an S&P 100 company. Burns is also a lifetime Xerox employee who has been with the company for over 30 years. She began as a graduate intern and was hired full-time after graduation. Because of her tenure with Xerox, she has close relationships with many of the employees, which provides a level of comfort and teamwork. She describes Xerox as a nice family. She maintains that Mulcahy created a strong and successful business but encouraged individuals to speak their mind, to not worry about hurting one another’s feelings, and to be more critical. Burns explains that she learned early on in her career, from her mentors at Xerox, the importance of managing individuals in different ways and not intentionally intimidating people but rather relating to them and their individual perspectives. As CEO, she wants to encourage people to get things done, take risks, and not be afraid of those risks. She motivates her teams by letting them know what her intentions and priorities are. The correlation between a manager’s leadership style and the productivity and motivation of employees is apparent at Xerox. Employees feel a sense of importance and a part of the process which are necessary to maintain a successful and profitable business. In 2010, Anne Mulcahy retired from her position on the board of directors to pursue new projects (Anne, 2010; Bryant, 2010; 50 most powerful women, 2006; Tompkins, 1992; Whitney, 2010).

All questions should be answered in relation to the case scenario entitled “Motivation- Key for Success: The Case of Xerox” . You should draw on the relevant chapters in your text to answer the questions. Read the case “Motivation- Key for Success: The Case of Xerox” near the end of chapter 6 of your text. You are the newly hired organizational consultant hired to help Xerox with ways to further motivate their staff. They feel they are doing a great job but want to enhance things further. They want to be the very best for potential employees, and they know a focus on motivation and looking at individual personality attitudes of their staff will help with this. You did all your background work, and you have your first meeting with them to answer their questions. Here are their questions below. Please answer each one of them, using full sentences. Note: For most of these questions, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer – do your best to answer the questions with your partner, based on the readings and learnings from the course! Just be sure to apply the OBR250 course theories and concepts to your answer, brainstorm with your partner for the best ideas, and see the rubric below for scoring.

Question 1: How do you feel about Xerox’s approach to managing their people? Do you see any downside or “cons” to this approach? Is this approach realistic for all companies?

Question 2: Xerox does a great job of motivating their employees. However, they want to do this even better. From your knowledge of motivating employees from your OBR250 course, describe five specific strategies they can engage in to motivate their employees even more, and explain any challenges they may have in their implementation.
Question 3: Xerox has been having workers work at home for the last 18 months during covid, where they could come and go as they please. Xerox is afraid of demotivating employees by making them come back to work. However, they know the in-person facetime is critical to drive productivity, engagement, and performance. Recommend a strategy to Xerox on how they should transition people back to work. Should it be everyone at once to be fair, by job, only those who want to? What are the pros and cons of your suggested approach. Consider equity theory in your answer.

Question 4: Is there anything about personality or job attitudes (chapters 3 & 4) that Xerox should consider when motivating individual employees? If so, what and how? Question 5: Pick two of your favorite motivation theories/concepts across chapters 5 or 6 and explain what they are, why they are your favorite, and how they could apply to this case.